California's congressional delegation is pushing for Vandenberg Air Force Base to be made the permanent home for the headquarters of the newest branch of the U.S. military, the U.S. Space Command.
The Central Coast base is one of six places under consideration by the Secretary of the Air Force for the headquarters.
Democratic Congressman Salud Carbajal of Santa Barbara plus Senator Dianne Feinstein and Senator Kamala Harris wrote a joint letter to the Secretary to support the Vandenberg proposal. They note the base is already the West Coast launch site for the Department of Defense and NASA.
The letter also points out that the region is also home to a number of universities which can help support the needed aerospace engineering pool for Space Force operations.
The Space Force is intended to manage U.S. military operations in space. It was originally created in 1985, and deactivated in 2002. President Trump revived the Space Force Command in 2019.
